Lance Tracy is an independent filmmaker and humanitarian whose latest film Relentless is now in release. We had the chance to talk with him about the film and his passions. Here’s what he had to say.
Hello Lance. Let’s start with you. For readers who don’t know, how about a little backstory of who you are and how you got into the business.
I lived in Seattle in the 80’s & 90’s during the era of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Sound Garden, etc. Music was alive and I was inspired to play in several bands in High School. But while making a music video for one of our songs I saw that I liked filmmaking more than music. After 3 years of college in Seattle, I moved to Hollywood to go to film school at Columbia College, Hollywood. In the late 90’s I was hired and directed a series of 30-minute short narrative films for about 5 years where I became acquainted with the sensibilities of a wide audience – and I was able to travel internationally as well, making documentaries. I then started my own production company making more docs, commercials and music videos. I also worked for both NBC and CBS as a Writer/Producer/Editor, working on the Olympics and other large campaigns. That gave me an awareness of screen economy and a commercial sensibility.
READ MORE: Full Review of Lance Tracy‘s Relentless
Your new film is called Relentless, about a mother who comes to El Salvador to find her kidnapped daughter, sold into human trafficking. It’s a devastating subject. Tell me about your motivations and what drew you to being its writer and director.
After directing commercials and docs and editing television, I was itching to write and direct a narrative feature—that was my heart all along over the 20 or so years I’ve been in the business. I made the decision that, come hell or high water, I was going to do it. I then raised the money from Kickstarter, a few equity investors and kicked in money myself to start the process of making Relentless.
Something about human trafficking hit me. And I wanted to tell that subject in a thriller genre. I found dozens of devastating true stories that inspired the groundwork for the script. I partnered with The Abolish Slavery Coalition, which rescues human trafficking victims and rehabilitates them. I respected that they were saving people by the thousands with almost no overhead.
Based on my documentary traveling experience, I decided that doing the film in a foreign country was what I as a producer had to offer that was unique to most American independent films of this size. I first tried to develop a story that took place in Cambodia. But it quickly became apparent that the government wasn’t going to let us shoot this story there, as it would inevitably show the world that they had and have an on-going trafficking problem that goes all the way up the government. My second choice was El Salvador – I had shot several projects there in the past and had some great relationships. I wrote the script to take place there.
The film is a mix of action and some very tough drama. What were some of the issues you might have had with keeping this balance, meaning making an entertaining action movie while telling a truly harrowing story?
There were two forces driving me to tell this story. One – I was moved to sadness and indignation as I researched true stories of people being burned alive and taken from homes and tricked into sex all in the name of profit. This film was a platform for me to lift the rock and watch the cockroaches scramble, while educating the audience along the way. That was the motivation for me behind the brutal drama you see on screen. It is all real and currently happening. I’m hoping the awareness inspires people to donate to rescue people and to personally get involved.
Two – I wanted to make an entertaining and suspenseful thriller. That’s the job of a narrative film. That is what inspired the action and suspense. Relentless is a very simple, linear story that takes place over a couple of days, through action, drama and suspense. Because of my editorial background, as a director I like to think like an editor as I’m shooting, trying to determine the least amount of time it takes to make a scene work—that translates to quick pacing and action and I hope that shows in Relentless.
Let’s talk about the cast. Lauren Shaw plays the mother, a determined woman with some impressive skills of her own. It’s a physical role. Any insights on building her character and preparing her for the part?
Bringing Lauren on is a funny story. My team had already spent a month in LA and a month in San Salvador in prep on the film. We had another leading lady on the film. About 5 days before principle photography she called and backed out. Her agents and family talked her out of doing the film because of the dangerous reputation of El Salvador. Our casting director in LA scrambled and got another woman on tape for me and then with 4 days to go, she backed out for the same reason. Then the casting director told me about Lauren Shaw who was literally on a plane from Puerto Rico after shooting an NBC show with John Malkovich. She got off the plane, we skyped, she did a read and we hired her. The next day she flew to San Salvador, did a read-through with David Castro who plays “Fern” and we were ready to go.
In addition to acting, Lauren Shaw is a model and stuntwoman—she’s originally from New Zealand. She is fearless. She did her own stunts, her own driving and her own fighting. In fact she had to dumb down her fighting so she wouldn’t seriously injure someone. On a film of this size and shooting conditions, you need someone like Lauren Shaw as a partner to do whatever it takes to get the shot. And that’s what she provided.
I really like Castro as Fern, a Salvadorian ex-military type with some connections. Tell us about him and if there are any real-life counterparts that inspired you to create him?
Believe it or not, Fern’s dialogue was partly inspired by Hannibal Lecter — a very smart man who toys with people and doesn’t take things very seriously—at least on the surface. In writing “Fern” – for whatever reason he spoke to me and his character was quite easy to write. He’s a guy who doesn’t like himself very much and is perhaps using penance to make things right. He plays Russian roulette with God to determine if he should help Lauren’s character, “Holly Drew”. I wanted people to find him creepy at first (the strip club sequence) but then grow to like him. David Castro literally submitted himself for the audition and walked in without the knowledge of his agent or our casting director. He hadn’t read the script and assumed “Fern” was the antagonist. He nailed it. In fact, I joke with Castro by saying he’s the most under-prepared actor I have worked with. I think that really works for him because he brings a freshness and realness to his character.
It’s my understanding that there are things in motion to give Fern another story. Anything you can tell us about?
Sure – my next film which is quite a bit larger, is called Special Interest Agent, inspired by a real-life female war-correspondent who becomes embedded in a rag-tag Homeland Security task force to go to Syria and kill the head of ISIS. The Salvadorian gang, MS-13 is involved and so the U.S. government calls on “Fern” to join the task force.
While Relentless did its festival run, it became clear to us that audiences were responding well to David Castro and his character “Fern”. So I decided on two things moving into my next film: to write a story that involves Fern and to make a film about Islamic terrorism that educates an audience about the motivations of ISIS and other radical groups. I had some very real questions about Islam that I wanted to deeply research and portray in this next film. This won’t be another Zero Dark Thirty or Hurt Locker. This film will explore the Islamic world and all the current heated debates that happen in the Western world after a substantial terrorist attack. And we spend a lot of time in a Syrian refugee camp that houses almost 100,000 refugees. We plan to shoot in Colombia, Morocco and the U.S. later this year.
I was greatly moved by the work of Sydney Sweeney playing the daughter. She had some hard scenes. Any thoughts on her would be great.
Syd was 16 when she shot Relentless. Her mother accompanied her to El Salvador. She was very professional and a very good actress. She surprised me a little because when I first called action she transformed instantly from a happy, smiling teenager into something else entirely. From my perspective, she isn’t a method actress that requires a great deal of preparation or a particular mood on the set.
We cast the rest of her fellow kidnapped girls in El Salvador. They banded together and became good friends. We took every precaution possible to keep her safe and to keep the set appropriate for her and the other girls. Sweeney in the brothel scenes was probably more awkward for me than for her. I felt quite uncomfortable having her in her costume – I felt like a father or big brother trying to protect her. But ultimately it was the aforementioned indignation of this happening in real life that spurred me on. Syd on the other hand was pretty comfortable the entire shoot.
You filmed much of Relentless on location in El Salvador. That must have been quite an experience. What were some of the challenges and conversely, some benefits of doing so?
We brought on Meridiano 89 as our production services / co-production partners in El Salvador. They had worked on all the current president’s campaign commercials and had really good connections with the government and military. They quickly helped us secure locations, all the Salvadorian cast, crew and meetings with the government and military. With the help of Oscar-winning Andre Guttfreund, one of our Executive Producers, who is also El Salvador’s minister of culture, we were able to find the best crew and cast El Salvador had to offer. They don’t have a film industry in El Salvador—only commercial productions. They are desperately trying to get one.
I’m very proud of the fact that the Salvadorian government lent us helicopters, soldiers, police, vehicles, transportation, security and whatever we needed to shoot there. In contrast to Cambodia and other nations that minimize their human trafficking problem, El Salvador humbly admits they have an issue and are willing to expose it. They had no problem with this script, which they needed to read in advance. That surprised me for the good.
However, things became difficult after we started shooting. There was a presidential election and the other side won. So we lost a lot of our government contracts. We had already started shooting the train sequence in an old government train graveyard and the new government came in and cancelled our deal and made us pay a lot more to continue. That’s where Meridiano 89 came in and massaged everything out. It was all hairy for a while because there were protests and election crowds – and you never know when something like that is going to go sideways in Central America.
El Salvador also has a very dangerous gang problem. There are literally soldiers with machine guns on almost every block. Fortunately the government lent us an elite group of soldiers, similar to the U.S. Navy Seals who escorted and protected us 24/7 for 2 months for free. On more than one occasion they shut us down in the middle of shooting because they were aware of gang activity in the area and couldn’t guarantee our safety.
No one knew how difficult this shoot would become. We shot 6 days a week for 4 weeks in El Salvador. Many days were 18 hours. A couple of days were 23 hours. Toward the end people were dropping out and crew moral was at an all time low. One thing after the other fell through and the film slowly became my personal Hearts of Darkness. But there were many cast and crew in El Salvador that hung in there through it all and I’m grateful to them to this day.
Your film was screened at the Senate and the House in the Capitol Building in Pennsylvania, per their request in passing an anti-human trafficking bill. That’s impressive. Would love to hear more about this.
We brought on Pittsburgh-based film publicist, Lynda Schneider to represent Relentless. She did an East Coast Premiere in Pittsburgh and brought out half the town. Her friend, PA Senator Camera Bartolotta showed up and was moved by the film. Bartolotta set up a screening before the house and senate in Harrisburg, PA to raise awareness for an anti-human trafficking bill that had already passed the house and needed to pass the Senate. Dawn Adams of The Abolish Slavery Coalition and I were able to speak on human trafficking and Relentless before the house and senate. The next day Senator Bartolotta passed her own bill to make every January in Pennsylvania human trafficking awareness month.
You’ve actually dedicated a lot effort to humanitarian documentaries. Tell us about ‘HUMAN’ and your company’s mission.
At the heart I love filmmaking and people. If I had an unofficial company mantra, it would be that ‘making a film is very hard and costs a lot of money—you might as well make the world a better place while doing it’. (It’s a bit clunky but you get the point).
One of the proudest moments of my life was when I recently learned that a $5k donation to the Abolish Slavery Coalition at the East Coast Premiere of Relentless was used to rescue 3 teenaged boys who were kidnapped and beaten and were about to be trafficked in Southern California.
I decided early on that every film I make would highlight a charity partner and donate to their cause. Special Interest Agent will help to highlight the travesty surrounding the Syrian refugee camps and the 100,0000 civilians who are just like you and me, but caught up in a deadly war they don’t want. I’ve got a film after that called Angry Angel – the true story of Donaldina Cameron who saved over 3,000 Chinese children from slavery during the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 – that film will help her foundation that still exists today to better the lives of Chinese children in San Francisco. I don’t have any plans to make more documentaries on an official capacity—I’m happiest doing narrative.
On our site, we dedicate a lot of content to discussing great moments in movies, examining their impact. I’m curious, is there a film or documentary that has had influence on you?
Citizen Kane – for all the usual reasons as a filmmaker, but “Rosebud” also struck a chord in me that woke my desire to tell stories that move and help people. I don’t want to end up like Kane who had everything the world had to offer but who lost his soul somewhere along the way. When he finally realized it, it was tragically too late. That’s a cautionary tale.
The Last of the Mohicans showed me what genre I wanted to pursue – I was moved deeply by Madeline Stowe’s struggle, the scenery and the epic war.
The Usual Suspects – I ran in some of the same circles as Bryan Singer just as he was finishing this film. His editor and composer, John Ottman composed my first official short film just after he did The Usual Suspects but before it came out. Singer’s complex story and execution inspired me to become a more cerebral storyteller.
Thanks so much for talking with me and I truly wish you the best of luck with Relentless and all your efforts as a filmmaker and humanitarian.
Thanks for taking the time David.